“Well, first, of the staining thing, a lot of my work is preoccupied with residue, evidence of non-physical experiences and how it kind of erupts through to become manifest. I suppose the one-sidedness of it… there’s definitely always an examination of different types of power dynamics. Partly I think because I’m not writing about it for fun. I’m not writing about sex for it to be fun, like, “Hey guys, did you know sex is really fun? Surprise!” That’s not productive, to me. I want to find the thing that is challenging. And something like this, where it’s erotic, it could be read as porn, but to use this awful word, “problematic” … it’s problematic. And I don’t want there to be a comfortable place where you’re pretty sure you’re supposed to know how you feel about it, because I hate that.”

Blaise Larmee was interviewed by Nicole Reber. From interviews and talks i’ve seen done with Larmee he has a very calculated mischievous side, which you can see sparks of here, but luckily it is reigned in enough to still be fully readable. (Larmee has a tendincey to deliberately tank interviews, which while enjoyable on some level aren't always the funnest thing to read.)

“AI: What’s the color psychology there? You just said that the purple harkens back to vintage manga.

JT: Not in any symbolic way. I mean, Rose reads manga and she is a manga fan because she’s like… 12. But I just thought it made the book feel a little warmer. Plus it looked different and unusual. Just on a formal level, it adds something undefinable—something nostalgic and a little bit warm.”

Every Chris Ware New Yorker cover. Most of what i’ve read concerning Moley’s editorial process surrounding New Yorker covers, and why i assume so many comic artists seem to draw them, is that each cover has to tell a complete story on its own. What is interesting with Ware’s covers are that while each of them tell their own story, when they are groped like this they begin to tell a greater narrative between them. Shifting in and out of generational perspectives and the role technology place within each. A few of these comprised Acme Novelty 18.5 so i assume Ware thought so to.

Bleeding Cool ran a piece on how Zero #11 was rejected from Apples comics service presumably because of the opening sex scene. Which is stupid. What is also stupid is that Bleeding Cool picked the one panel in that opening sequence without any genetalia in it (the image they chose had a reaction shot covering Zero’s dicks while it was going into Siobhan’s mouth, which seemed oddly joke-y to me in the comic let alone in a article about its cencorship). Comics Alliance does this also, even post-AOL, where they discuss Apples prudishness towards sex while also displaying their own sites prudishness towards sex. Bleeding Cool being run by Avatar Comics makes the whole thing even more confusing. I’m not sure where this is going, i think i’d just like to see more dicks in comics.

Friday, October 17, 2014

"This week, I am going to catch up with fellow C Box contributer, co-host of the greatest comic book podcast The Splash Page, and all around great human being Chad Nevett. Chad edited and contributed essays to the long awaited new Sequart book release 'Shot In The Dark: A Savage Journey to the Heart of Transmetropolitian' which is available to purchase from Amazon and other fine book retailers right now. Here's a little info on that release...." - Joey Alusio

Shawn Starr: How did you come to edit a book about 'Transmetropolitan' for Sequart?

Chad Nevett: Blame that, like my other big writing gig (for CBR),
on Tim Callahan. He wrote his Grant Morrison book for Sequart and they
wanted him to do something for their website. He decided to do a
discussion column and asked me to do it with him. That was January or
February of 2008... the beginning of the Splash Page. We did that for
Sequart's site and, in the process, I got added to their e-mail list
when new projects would come up and they would open the call for essay
pitches. I wound up doing three essays over a few years, one for their 'Watchmen' book and two for their 'Planetary' book. Shortly after the 'Planetary'
book came out, I began talking with Mike Phillips about doing something
for them, hopefully a book entirely by me. They had asked for three
book ideas and I had two: one about Jim Starlin's cosmic work and an
anthology about 'Hellblazer'. I figured that I'd give them one
idea that's all me and one essay collection to increase my odds of
actually getting something done. But, I needed a third idea. Really,
those were the two projects that I was excited for at the time, so I
threw in something about 'Transmetropolitan'. I'm a big Ellis fan
and I had some ideas about the book and... well, I needed a third idea
and I didn't think Joe Casey would sell, you know?

Turns out, "Warren Ellis" was the name to mention at Sequart at the time
as they were looking to launch a bunch of projects surrounding Ellis.
They already had the 'Planetary' book and the documentary about Ellis
that Patrick Meaney had done would be coming out, and a couple of more
books gave them their "Year of Ellis" project. They're a fan of the
anthology books -- and I can see why given the variety of topics and
writers you can utilize in anthologies -- and, since they already had a
single-author Ellis book scheduled, I think they wanted another
anthology to complement the 'Planetary' one. So, they asked if I'd be interested in editing it. I figured what the hell, should be fun...

Do you have a personal connection to 'Transmetropolitan'? It seems like a work that, if read at the right time in ones life, can have a lasting effect on you.

You can say that it came along at the right time in my life to make a
lasting impression. I want to say that I began reading it in January
2000, so I was around 16/17 (my birthday is in January), I was
politically minded, feeling trapped in a bit at Catholic school, feeling
like I was smarter than everyone around me, and hungry for stuff like
Transmet that would both validate and challenge what I was thinking and
feeling. I had been an Ellis fan for years, first having my 12-year old
mind blown when he took over Thor and, when I first tried out Transmet,
was pissed off because he had just left 'The Authority', which
was a comic that I was obsessed with in a big way when it was coming
out. I literally carried the first four issues around in my backpack for
months, randomly pulling them out and just re-reading and flipping
through them. And Transmet went beyond that stuff.

I started out with "Year of the Bastard." My shop had all six issues in
the back issue bin, so I plunked down my cash and was introduced to the
world of Spider Jerusalem. I don't know if I had started reading the
comic from the beginning if I would have been so taken with it. But,
beginning with the big politics story arc was the perfect thing to hook
me. And, in the process, Warren Ellis introduced me to Hunter Thompson.
It's not coincidental that that's where I began the series and the essay
that I wrote for 'Shot in the Face' is a look at the influence of Thompson upon 'Transmetropolitan'.

After I discovered Transmet, I'm sure the people around me found me a
little more annoying. I covered my binder with quotes from the book and
talked shit and talked politics like I knew what I was talking about...
it was a good time. Transmet was the second half of high school for me
along with Thompson and Mark Leyner (who I learned about from a Transmet
letter page!) and all sorts of obnoxious self-righteousness that's yet
to wear off entirely...

What was your editorial approach to the book. Do you see it as an academic piece of criticism or something more free flowing?

Well, Sequart's aim is more academic than anything and I have spent six
years in the world of academia, so I think there's an academic
approach/feeling that's hard to escape. However, that's not something
that necessarily drives me in a project like this. I tend to be a bit
more free flowing as a writer. Once you've got that smart, academic
base, you should feel free to push things and chaff against it a bit. I
was hoping for a book that contained a nice variety of voices rather
than a more unified feel that you might find in an academic journal
(though, there can be some nice variety there as well, don't get me
wrong). If I had to choose between voice and adhering to an academic
approach, I usually sided with voice. But, that's because I also knew
that I had guys like Mike Phillips and Julian Darius backstopping me. I
could afford to push things a little bit that way, because they (and the
rest of their editorial team) would stop things from going too far
outside of what they think fits with Sequart.

Did your opinion of 'Transmetropolitan' change during the
process of working on the book? Was there any contributors whose essay’s
changed how you thought about the work?

I have a pretty strong opinion/view when it comes to Transmet, so I
wouldn't go so far as to say anything changed during the process of
working on the book. I think it's more accurate to say that I was
exposed to ideas that I hadn't previously considered. I didn't agree
with all of them, but that's hardly the point. Julian's essay on the
structure of the book made me rethink the way that the series was put
together. Namely, I knew it could be broken down into six-issue chunks
because that's how the trades were put together, but I never looked
beyond that. I never noticed how Ellis used three-issue groupings
throughout the run... except for year two. I never thought about how
"Year of the Bastard" and "New Scum" are the only six-issue story arcs
in the series. It was an angle that I had never considered that I really
liked thinking about for a bit there.

Almost every essay had at least one moment like that where I saw some
aspect of the book in a way that I hadn't before. I don't agree with the
majority of Greg Burgas's essay (let the internet feud begin!), but he
makes a good case and he made me consider the way that I viewed Spider's
relationship with women. It influenced part of my essay comparing
Hunter Thompson and Spider, and each of their relationships, not just
with women but with men, too. That was a big appeal of the project and
something that I hope readers take from the book. I know it's something
that I've loved about the Sequart anthologies I've read.

The book seemed to be delayed for a while, was there a specific reason behind that?

There were two main reasons. The second one is an easy explanation: it
took time to transcribe Warren Ellis' interviews for the documentary and
we wanted to include what he said about 'Transmetropolitan' in
this book. I love when books like these have some author interview and
Sequart has a wealth of Ellis interview material in the footage that
Patrick Meaney shot with him, and it's a great idea to cull the
appropriate parts for books like these. Transcribing those interviews
took time, so the book wound up getting delayed until those
transcriptions were done.

The first reason for delay is a little tougher to explain. Basically, I
learned that I like writing, but I don't like editing. It's not
something that I find natural or comfortable. I can revise and rework
things I've written, but handling things written by others is tough for
me. I think my limit of comfort is reading an essay and making some
notes on it. But, this project required more than that and it took me a
long time to be able to do that. Far longer than it should have.
Thankfully, Mike and Julian were both very understanding and very
encouraging. I'm glad that I did this, but I definitely learned that
editing is not something that I enjoy.

It's a little weird to say that, because I did love working on this
book. It was a pleasure working with Mike and Julian from discussing
possible topics to reading essay pitches to reading the essays to
working with Kevin Colden on cover ideas... It was a blast and I am
really proud of the book. I just don't want to edit another book again.
Ha.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

My Name Is Martin Shears.There is an implied period at the end of that statement. Maybe even an exclamation point. But as the narrative moves forward the resolve it once had begins to falter. That implied exclamation point becomes an implied period, and that implied period becomes, at last, an implied question mark.

(My Name Is Martin Shears…?)

Martin Shears identity is always in doubt. His thoughts and image are in flux. From the very outset the cover, which bears Martin Shears portrait, is not even a constant. As every copy has a different image adorning it, each hand drawn by White in varying colors and styles. Making it so that every buyer is given there own, unique, image to identify with as Martin Shears. But one which is never be repeated. Never replicated.

From his presence on the cover forward Shears identity is never cemented for the reader. He has no defining traits, his hair, nose, and clothes all conspire panel by panel to make it impossible to nail him down. His thoughts are purposefully muddled and obscured by Whites choice to place them within his messy linework, overlaying them on top of Shears head and making them almost unreadable as they blend together into one single mass. White forces you to strain yourself to read Shears thoughts, and even then your efforts are largely unrewarded, as there is little information to glean from them.

White takes this purposeful confusion even further than merely knowing what Martin Shears is supposed to look like and think though. Shears own narrative isn't even allowed to stay consistent for each reader; as there exists four different versions of My Name Is Martin Shears each with added and subtracted pages and scenes that are placed in differing order, so that not even the pages sequencing rings true. Mixing the non-linear narrative into four distinct versions creates a near infinite number of iterations in practice though, creating, like each cover, a singular Martin Shear for each reader. One that is unlikely to be read by anyone they know. Like Chris Ware’s Building Stories the narrative you are given is the one that you pick out of the stack. This randomness simply becomes another form of subterfuge in trying to identify the man named Martin Shear. There is no “true” Martin Shear though, but simply the one you are holding in your hand

This all culminates in the stories final page, not the final page of the comic, but the back cover which all but cements this fog. Depicting a piece of white paper sitting on top of a desk with the words Martin Shear scrawled across it. The name is repeated sixteen times, but following the third line the name begins to mutate. Letters morph or are dropped at random and the name being written becomes as cloudy as the narrative, until it ultimately turns into something with no bearing to the one which adorned the top of the page.

My Name Is Martin Shears is narrative game of Telephone, with every reader receiving their own prompt and answer.

But comics being an extension of yourself, or a heightened version of yourself, as you said, and then a therapist being able to read into it… maybe you don’t have to psychoanalyze your own self but what do you think has largely been the interpretation of you via your artwork? What do you hear people say about you vis-à-vis your artwork?

There are people who maybe have an idea of who I am based on what I draw, and I guess it’s maybe a funny version of it. Because I work onThickness, and some of my comics have sexual content in them, and I do a lot of stories that are at least related to the horror genre… because of that, for a while I would get a lot of emails from people who would just send me just indiscriminately fucked up shit, which was a little upsetting. Because people knew I like horror manga, and I like Junji Ito, and I worked on porn…I would be like, I don’t just want to indiscriminately see fucked up things. I’m not into seeing urethras with needles in them without any context, and I think people assume that stuff about me, that I’m into that.

SPX happened. I wasn’t there because I was attending a bachelor party, of which I remember only small tidbits of, so I guess i could have been at SPX and forgot all about it. Here are some photos of RIPExpo that I found on my phone to counteract my currently being out of the loop on alt-comics.

This was the entrance of RIPE, which was held in the Providence Library. I love New England because of all the old state buildings, they have a stature to them that newer buildings can't ever really match. I assume there's a strained metaphor that could be made comparing the institution of comics to the relative youth of the attendees (I don't think their was a person tabling over the age of 30) but i don't feel like making it. It was a cool venue though.

(I did find the lack of designated tables at the show a bit annoying, I found pretty much everything I wanted but it took a few more trips around the venue than if i were simply able to look up artists tables in the show brochure. From what I've heard the 'sit where you like' aspect was a deliberate choice for a more freewheeling set up and not laziness, so i can't fault it to much for that.)

Ines Estrda's table. In the corner you can see Sam Alden and the basic shape of the 2DCloud table. Alden drew one of the nicest dedications i've ever had in my copy of It Never Happened Again all in under a minute which amazed me.

Blaise Larmee drew in my copy of Young Lions also but misspelt my last name which i found really funny. The drawing was really pretty though.

Mickey Z's table. I got the new issues of RAV which was great, plus I saw a galley of the Youth In Declines which is one of the books i'm looking forward to greatly this Fall.

I regret not buying all the Mother News issues that where taking up the 2nd half of this table.

There was a sticker machine, which was filled with stickers from various attending cartoonists. I thought that was a really smart idea.

Annnnnnnnnd that's all the pictures i took. It was a good show, although i'm pretty much with everyone else in saying that it should have taken place during the RISD school year. But it seems like the people running it are already working on that problem.

Well,
yeah, probably. You know, I guess I’m not going to travel like this
because it’s kind of a hassle. And uh, just getting stared at
relentlessly. I’m just shy really. I’ll get drunk and probably dress up
for most of the occasions. Cohen has gently intimated, as a publicist, I
think she’s like, “Dress up!” but you know, I’ll be nervous about it.
It was really nerve-racking doing this at CAB, because this is a thing
now. People are disappointed if I don’t, and they expect it in a way,
the pageantry. It’s kind of hard to travel with all this stuff in my
bag. Coming over to the States I got grilled at every security
checkpoint, “What’s all this stuff?” Nervously explaining all these wigs
and everything. It just makes me shy and nervous. It’s annoying that I
am shy and nervous about it. I’m bad enough on the streets regularly.
I’m still feeling it all out. But I’m going to try and dress up.

Her Name Was Prudence by Cathy G. Johnson. I really enjoyed this comic by the newly crowned “Most Promising New Talent” Ignatz recipient. Turns out she was at RIPE and I missed her, making my rule of missing at minimum one person who I was unaware of and now enjoy their work at every convention i attended stand.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Four folds of a single sheet of pink paper. This is what makes up Heather Benjamins new comic Melancholy Devil. A front and back cover, each existing in the space of a fourth of a page. When folded outwards they show another image, this one inhabits the remaining space of the top half of the page that the front and back cover take up. Unfolded once more, for the last time, and a single image, which takes up the entirety of the back page, is shown. Five images in total.

Folding has a tactility to it which individual page turns cannot replicate. From the cover to final image Benjamin ups the ante, each fold revealing more, reflecting on the previous, while still extending the basic thought. You are pulling the piece of art apart, actively participating in its disassembly. This is more personal than flipping a page, a gust of wind could do that, pulling something apart though requires a deliberate act. It requires active participation.

The real takeaway from this issue is Seth’s Stamp Comics. In essence, what Seth did was create a series of 10-20 stamps with generic drawings on them, one of the sun, one of a series of buildings, a close up of his face, a shot of a him walking etc. He then used these to create a series of autobio comics about his days inserting generic stamps to quicken the process along with drawing a few images by hand when he didn’t have a stamp to represent an image.

What these distinct patterns bring to the surface is the inherent repetition of each day. Auto-bio strips deal with the unextraordinary on a daily basis much more than they do the extraordinary, for every Joe Sacco there is a hundred Jeffrey Browns. In the pre-existing images of each stamp there is inherently a finite number of combinations, and while that number is very high, they largely fall into a similar patterns. Seth goes outside, walks around, comments on the beauty of nature and then goes back home after something intrudes on his thoughts.He goes out for various reasons, but at all times it is a fleeting moment until he retreats back into his home, where he is safe in his thoughts and art.